Jan. 29, 2009

Recap |  Final Stats

LOS ANGELES - Cal fell to UCLA, 81-66, Thursday night in Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles. Below are the postgame comments from Mike Montgomery and Ben Howland.

Cal head coach Mike Montgomery:
Well, we got physically dominated tonight. We allowed that and we turned it over. You can't do that against UCLA. We got down by three, but we did not do anything well enough to win this game. Also, we did not guard well enough. Basketball is a game of performance. If we can't execute, we are going to struggle. Sixteen turnovers (in the first half) is a whole games worth. They just physically took us out of the ballgame.

Nobody stood out tonight. We got beat by 15. When our offense does not go well, we don't defend as well as we should and this can lead to our problems.

UCLA head coach Ben Howland:
I was really excited with the win against a very good Cal team. I think our defensive intensity was the key. We forced 16 turnovers in the first half. We did a good job on (Patrick)Christopher who is going to be an NBA player. We were able to hold Robertson scoreless in the first half.

Darren Collison had one of his best performances this season. He did an outstanding job stopping the ball in transition. He attacked the basket and we all did a good job in transition off of their turnovers. Our offense really started with good defense.